With Tuesday’s trade for Serge Ibaka, the Raptors’ future was changed, both in the short term and the long term. While Ibaka answers a big question for the Raptors in the present, he raises several new ones for the team’s future. Over the next few days, The Athletic Toronto will search (which, as it happens, shares certain aural qualities with the name Serge) for the answers to those queries.

The Toronto Raptors played their first playoff game in nearly six years on April 19, 2014. Not surprisingly, they looked like a team that did not really remember, or even know, what that moment was supposed to feel like. They were stagnant on offence all game, shooting below 40 per cent from the floor. Their offensive stars, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, shot just 10-for-31 from the floor. They turned the ball over 17 times. The Brooklyn Nets kept the Raptors at arm’s length for most of the afternoon, and walked away with a victory.